Review by Dottie: Branded (Ignite Trilogy #2) by Tara Sivec

Branded

Ignite Trilogy #2

By Tara Sivec

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Romance

****

Teasers

 ****

 ****

 ****

Synopsis

I wear my scars like a scarlet letter, reminding myself that I’m not worth the trouble. 

I’ve spent seventeen years pushing men away, never allowing myself to believe in the fairytale…then, he walked back in. 

Just like before, we explode when we’re together. I hate him for what he did to me, but I can’t stay away. 

Eighteen days filled with passion and promises. 

Nineteen letters filled with threats and foreboding. 

It only takes twenty minutes for the numbers to all add up. 

One thousand, two hundred seconds until everything changes and there’s no going back. 

This is my story, and it’s going to leave a scar.

Star Rating

(4 Stars)

Review

After reading Tara Sivec's Burned, I was most anxious to read the sequel (which turns out to be the second book in a trilogy, book three, Scorched will be released this spring)!  Phina is the kick-ass BFF of Finnley from Burned whom I loved!!  And her leading man...DJ (Collin's best bud) which I was surprised to see; I honestly didn't see leading man potential there...I was wrong!

I thought I knew Phina from Burned.  I knew she was absolutely loyal and would do anything for Finnley.  Cool.  But it turns out; I didn't know her at all!  The overall theme of this series seems to be women overcoming diversity and finding a love lost within the public servant community (we'll see if this holds true in the final book of this series in the spring). 

Phina's life has been anything but easy.  She's worked hard to get to where she is and has really only allowed her friend Finnley into her heart where she (Finnley) has become the only family she has.  She dates but never allows herself to get serious...she's never really gotten over DJ, for whom she had a serious crush on in high school.

As for DJ, he's always had a serious thing for Phina (who knew???) but she always seemed out of reach.  So he grew up, went on with his life, and didn't exactly build relationships with women, like, at all.  He just played and worked and didn't see any reason to settle down to only one woman, ever!  I have to say I went into this book not being all too fond of DJ (after also meeting him in Burned).  He was a playboy who just had no interest in building a relationship.  Little did I know it was because his heart wasn't really his to give.  By the end, I found myself liking DJ quite a lot!

I've stated before that I really love second-chance stories.  I wanted to read this book because I adored Burned.  I had no idea this was also a second-chance story, but it is!  These are two people who have always had a thing for one another but thought they were alone in that feeling so never pursued one another.  At the beginning of Burned, they were suddenly making out with one another, so that they were going to date is this book didn't surprise me.  But learning their history, that was a surprise.  And when danger lurks, DJ isn't about to let the woman who has owned his heart for years go unprotected.

"You drive me crazy," she says. "The feeling is mutual.  When do you want to go to your place and pack a bag?"  She rolls her eyes and shakes her head at me.  "That is non-negotiable.  I am still not going to live with you."  I let myself touch her, wrapping my hands around her arms.  "I need to make sure you're safe.  I don't want to worry about you when you're not here."  She shrugs out of my grasp angrily and takes a step back.  "I am not your fucking responsibility!" she shouts smacking her hands into my chest.  I move towards her, refusing to let her move away from me.  "I love you!  That makes you my fucking responsibility!"

This book again has a villain.  It has suspense.  It has hunky firefighters and cops and EMTs.  It has a plot-twist I thought I saw coming but even the twist had a twist I didn't expect.  It has a woman deeply affected by her past but determined to overcome it.  It is about two people finding one another; whether or not that is something they thought they wanted.  Again, Tara Sivec also writes some pretty steamy scenes and these two are not exception...

Pressing my hands against his chest, I push him backwards without stopping the kiss.  His feet move and his arms wrap around me as he pulls me with him.  I push harder when we get to the other side of the room and slam his back against the wall so roughly that it knocks a picture loose and I hear it crash to the floor.  He quickly turns both of us, pulling his mouth away from mine to spin me around, placing his hands on my back and shoving the front of my body against the wall.  I slam my hands against it to hold me up while I feel him push his pants down behind me and hear the crinkle of a condom wrapper being opened...Pressing my cheek against the cool wall, I sigh in relief and forget about the magically appearing condom when he roughly pushes my skirt up over my ass, bends his knees and drives his cock up inside of me in one hard thrust.  We both groan when he pauses, and I feel my pussy clench around him.  "Fuck, you drive me crazy," he mutters against the back of my neck as he starts moving, slamming his hips against my ass, his cock filling me and making me beg for more.  "Harder, fucking harder!" I shout.  He does as I ask even though it seems to piss him off, fucking me so hard that the front of my body slams against the wall over and over.

And...

Scooting down on the bed, I lean forward and take my time kissing each and every scar.  I tell her I love her after each kiss.  I tell her she's beautiful after each kiss.  I tell her she's strong after each kiss.  She turns suddenly, rolling onto her back and I see that her cheeks are wet with tears.  She puts her hands on either side of my face and pulls me up her body, pressing her lips to mine.  I can taste the salt from her tears on her lips as she wraps her arms around my back and pulls me on top of her under the covers...She spreads her legs when I roll back on top of her until I'm cradled between her thighs, my cock pressing right against her.  She tilts her hips and rubs her wet pussy against my cock, coating the entire length.  With my elbows on either side of her head, I pull back so I can look into her eyes.  I move my ass back and I don't take my eyes off of her as I slide inside of her, so easy and so perfectly.  Another tear falls down her cheek and I kiss it away as I slowly rock my hips.

This book is almost double the length of the first book in the series, which I liked (Burned was only 126 pages according to my Nook) so Branded had more time to develop and allowed me to understand these people and their histories a bit better.  I think I gave Burned 5 stars because it was intense for me in a different way than Branded was.  Branded was a very good book though.  For me, to give 5 stars, the book has to blow my mind or make me cry or just hit me in the heart.  Branded was a book I really liked a ton but it didn't hit me quite as hard as Burned.  I definitely recommend this series so far! 

Purchase Branded Here: